This research will explore the observed changes in alcohol use during the transition from adolescence to young adulthood, using data from the National Longitudinal Surveys of Labor Market Experience of Youth. Previous epidemiological research indicates a shift from adolescent heavy drinking concentrated on weekends to an adult pattern of moderate drinking throughout the week. It is hypothesized that the change is a function of the other transitions which occur during the young adult period: marriage, parenthood, school graduation, entry into the paid labor market. Phase I of the research will use the 1983 wave of the NLS panel (over 12,000 respondents 18-25 years of age in 1983) for a cross-sectional analysis of the variations in alcohol use patterns associated with various life-cycle transitions. Phase II will expand the analysis to a longitudinal study. Using data on alcohol use collected in 1982, 1983, and 1984. By treating each one year period as a separate trial, the analysis will look at changes in alcohol use associated with the selected role transitions. Multivariate modeling techniques will be use, primarily those derived from the General Linear Model (OLS, Tobit, Probit, Multinomial Logit). Both quantitative and qualitative measures of alcohol use patterns will be examined. In Phase I, all analyses will be run separately by race and sex, to explore possible subcultural variations in alcohol use patterns. In Phase II, the feasibility of subgroup analysis will depend on the number of respondents in each subgroup who change status within the period under study. In all cases, the age of the transition will be examined. It is hypothesized that early entry into adulthood will be associated with higher levels of problem behavior generally, and heavy drinking in particular.